Real-world rides: Honda CB350 and CL350
With the most rotton old pile of British junk worth more than your home these days, how about a nice, air-cooled, 350 twin, easy to work on and great to ride with electric start, metric fastenings and most importantly, still a realistic price!
Great fun, highly reliable and most of all, great value – we look at what it’s like owning one of Honda’s best-loved but under-rated bikes
We in the UK never really took the Honda 350 twin to our bosom, yet as the years pass once-unfashionable motorcycles sometimes get a new lease of life. Today these twins are enjoying something of a renaissance.
This early lack of recognition had a lot to do with Britain’s L-plate laws. If you were young and over-enthusiastic, without a full licence, then you would plump for a 250 from one of the big four Japanese manufacturers. Only Honda would sell you a 250cc four-stroke and it would be left behind in a cloud of blue two-stroke smoke, until the rival’s plugs fouled, at least.
Meanwhile, lurking in the Honda dealership were the CB350 twins, which appeared to be just a bigger version of the bike the law restricted you to. There were only a few reasons for picking up a CB350 twin. They were more affordable than the 400s, and significantly cheaper to insure.
The CB350 buyer was often older and they bought them as straightforward day-to-day commuting transport bought by people on a budget. Maintenance and servicing were often of the kerbside kind, and they would be hammered around on bad roads in all weathers. When things broke, you went to your local Honda dealership and were told there was a six week wait for whatever it was you needed, so you went to your local breakers and bought used parts that were only slightly less worn out than the ones you were replacing. But this was just in Britain.
Elsewhere in the world, Honda’s 350s had much easier lives than the CB twins bought in the UK.
The first CB350K had the look of a purposeful and vaguely sporty machine. Then for reasons best known to themselves Honda went backwards, and the late CB350K stylistically had the air of a British twin. One can only assume that someone at Honda had decided there was a hole in the market for a cheap middleweight twin with a traditional look. The result was not without its charm, perfectly serviceable but lacking in oomph. This in turn was replaced by the CB350G. This was slightly more angular than the K series, but like a lot of Seventies bikes, it lacked pizazz, and came in a selection of rather dull colour schemes.
This was replaced in the UK by the road-going CB360G5 which, by adding 32cc took the twin out of the cheaper insurance bands, which was a little foolish from a marketing standpoint. It was a rather bland looking machine, even more so than the CB350K model, though it did have a disc brake. The drum on the K was arguably better and is now popular among vintage racers.
The CB360 was in turn replaced with a budget version badged as the CJ360T. Often derided for its budget trim, the CJ has a stripped-down look that has a certain something, and at least it came in bright yellow, red or occasionally, blue. The slender lines are something you either love or hate. Strangely, Honda removed the electric starter as an economy measure. While the 360 twin was not exactly hard to kick over, the lack of an electric start meant that the CJ lost Honda’s only real advantage over rival two-stroke twins. The CJ models were ultimately replaced by the all-new CB400 Dream.
A lot of these twins have been seized on by the
Bobber and custom builders, because they are cheap and easy to customise. Slap a thin brat-style seat on it, some cut down mudguards, a couple of budget ‘mufflers’ and a pair of knobbly tyres and you are away. And if you are canny, you can sell the leftover bits for a premium.
You can pick a Honda 350/360 up for restoration in one piece for anything from £1000 upwards, and a good complete runner for between £2000 and
£3000. CL Street Scrambler models, especially those with complete exhausts and the correct trim carry a premium of around £500 over the road bikes.
The CL350/360
A third of Honda 350 sales were of a motorcycle that never reached UK showrooms, the CL350 street scrambler, a ride-to-work, ride-for-fun two-wheeler.
Mark, at vintage Japanese specialists Somerset Classics, says that the CB, and more commonly the
CL, has become massively popular with classic riders. This has a lot to do with their looks, how easy a Honda 350 is to live with, and their ready availability.
“It’s fun to ride, looks and feels like a period classic should and at the same time it’s got an electric start, an engine that’s easy to work on, you can get spares for them, and they are fairly light and easy to ride and are mostly oil-tight. A lot of people are finding old British bikes hard to start, or to look after. The Honda 350 though, is perfect for day-to-day riding, and just keeps going, while retaining that classicness.”
The CL350 wasn’t available in the UK when new but sold in vast numbers across the pond where the inexperienced rider wasn’t constrained by
L-plates and 250 laws. In Arkansas you can ride a moped from the age of 10 and any motorcycle from 14 in three other states. Often these bikes were bought as fun machines, rather than day-today transport. By the time they had reached 15,000 miles or so the owner would have grown out of their street-scrambler and relegated it to the back of the garage. Now the dustsheets are being pulled off these machines and many of these bikes end up in containers destined for eager buyers in the UK. And who can blame them for being eager? A low mileage mount, often with no more than a couple of owners, it’s mechanical longevity barely tested, does have considerable attraction.
Honda brought out the first CL350 in 1968. The tank was a slightly truncated version of the angular CB series roadster item. The frame had a single steel front down tube which had been welded to a twin tubed cradle tubular steel cradle. The frame had a pressed steel top section under the petrol tank and a pressed steel rear down tube hidden by the side panels. The CL350 had all the refinements of the CB350K roadster such as 12-volt electrics, a reliable electric start, good lights and modern instrumentation. The engine was a 326cc air-cooled parallel twin with a single overhead
camshaft, two valves per cylinder, twin CV carbs, a five-speed gearbox, and a reported 33bhp at 9500rpm. Honda optimistically claimed a top speed of 100mph. It had braced bars, forgiving suspension and a highlevel exhaust system.
What Honda did with their exhausts will cause issues for the buyer of an old model today. While the first models had double skinned down pipes, they changed the system regularly, and, as with their CB350 four, they made the silencers out of light, thin metal to save weight and cost. The problem today is that these silencers were made in different versions over the years and are very hard to find in decent condition. Mudguards front and rear were chromed and trimmed, and the forks were given smart rubber gaiters rather than the road bike’s more conservative painted steel shrouds. The engine, which has a 180-degree crankshaft mounted on roller bearings, was a bit vibratory. Given it produced peak power at 9500rpm, this wasn’t a surprise.
Honda put a 19-inch front wheel on the CL with an excellent front drum brake which some riders found almost uncomfortably powerful. This bigger wheel, combined with rerouting the exhausts gave a little more ground clearance than the CB, but Honda clearly didn’t expect users to have serious off-road pretensions as they didn’t bother to fit a bash plate and it had road tyres as standard. The rarely seen SL 350 model had more off-road potential. You weren’t going to take part in any desert races on a CL, but it was more than capable of negotiating dirt roads in the great outdoors.
On the road
The thing about the CL350 is just how much fun it is. It’s a full-sized motorcycle, with a reasonable amount of power. It handles reasonably well and is firmer that you might expect of a 1970’s runabout, many of which were squidgy in the extreme. The CLs engine barks along through its twin shotgun style pipes.
It also feels as if you are getting something of quality. Almost all the ancillary bits and bobs are well made, and on the steed we borrowed all the original equipment was there. Brakes are good, instruments clear, switchgear faultless. The proportions are excellent. You can see out of the mirrors. The cables, despite sitting for decades on the one we rode, are smooth. The seat is comfy enough for long rides, and the trail bike-style bars and big front wheel make it easy to flip about. Keep to the back roads and they’ll show the CL in its best light.
Power delivery is great, and while you won’t win any traffic light drag races, it’s easily capable of keeping up with modern traffic. The sole issue for the new owner is likely to be getting the hang of the
choke arrangement – there’s nothing to indicate what’s on or off and finding the lever while riding along to turn it off in thick gloves is challenging.
The gearshift and clutch arrangement are typically Honda, that is to say it’s smooth, light and allows changes to be instinctive. There’s no massive clunk, no stuck clutches and no false neutrals.
The CL feels like the kind of bike you can ride around on all day, every day, with a bit of style. Given the choice between one on the current crop of new street scramblers and a CL350, the easy-to-live-with Honda wins every time.
Buying on a real-world budget £2000-£3500
You might not think you can pick up a usable British Classic for less than £3500, but you can, and it could even have an electric start. Norton’s Electra/ES400 was developed for the US market in the early 1960s. It used a mixture of generic AMC lightweight and Norton running gear with Norton’s Roadholder forks and there’s a well-designed engine unit in there too with a good gearbox. The ES 400 also boasted a Lucas M3 electric foot similar in design to that fitted to Honda 350s and later to Commandos and T140 Bonnevilles. There are top notch 8-inch drum brakes. It also had futuristic novelties such as indicators They aren’t exactly common, but you can find them for sale, if you are prepared to put up with a long hunt.
Perhaps you want to find something now with a little more zip? Nostalgia being what it is, the CB350s two-stroke rivals have shot up in price beyond our £3500 limit in recent years, so how about a rival fourstroke? A late 1970s Suzuki GS550 needing a little work can still be had for less than £2000, while the older Honda CB550 is not much pricier. The famed Honda CB400/4, good examples of which rose in value dramatically 10 years ago, has now seen prices settle down a little and a good one can be found for around £3000.
Looking for something a little more modern and a little more exotic? A useable Moto Guzzi V50 is easily obtainable for around £3000, MkI or MkIII is best. If you are looking for something that seems cheap but will ultimately drain your bank account of everything you have saved, try an early 1990s Ducati 600 or 750SS. Available from £2000, just keeping it running will bleed you white in weeks.